'Then what?' Chris asked, more earnestly. Childish as Dr 138 Who's rants seemed, he couldn't help but think about Detrios and wonder if this strange man might provide the solution to that world's difficulties.

'Then we topple the administration, enabling the rebel leader to take charge.'

'What happens if the rebel leader mistreats the people too?'

'Then,' said Dr Who, 'we go back a few years later and do the same thing again.'

'Oh.'

'You still don't understand, do you?'

Chris had to admit that he didn't understand. He didn't understand anything. He returned to his room (at least that offered him some familiarity) and lay on the bed as his confused mind worked over the events of the day.

It wouldn't sink in. The Doctor whom he had known and trusted for a few months now was actually a cunning, malicious copy of the real thing, this 'Dr Who'. That didn't ring true.

After all, the Doctor had tried to do real good on Earth, and had succeeded to some extent. He had faced down the decidedly unpleasant Zamps too and . . . well, despite his occasional secrecy, he had always seemed the most honest and kind person that Chris had ever met.

But then, there was the matter of Detrios and the Doctor's attempted destruction thereof. It wasn't just that Dr Who had made that claim - Chris had worked the whole thing out already and knew it to be almost certainly true. And then there was the gun-toting woman who had laid into Jason at that restaurant place. He was still a little hazy about that, but if it really had been Ace - of whom he had heard the Doctor speak often - then that was one more point in the newcomer's favour.

What Chris needed right now, he decided, was a healthy dose of Roz Forrester's brand of common sense and stoic realism.

What he really didn't need was a visitor.

'I thought I'd better introduce myself properly, now that we're both Dr Who's companions. I'm Jason.'

'I know. Chris Cwej.' They shook hands. Chris's eyes 139 narrowed. 'You look a lot better.'

'Dr Who has a healing machine in the TARDIS.'

That reminded Chris of something which had been nagging at him. 'Dr Who's TARDIS, you say?'

Jason forestalled the inevitable question. 'The evil Doctor stole it. Dr Who only managed to get it back recently, when he tracked down his mortal enemy and confronted him in one final, bloodcurdling . . . erm, confrontation.' He made a series of vocal explosion noises as his hands chased and smacked into each other in a pitiful reconstruction of the battle he was describing. Chris stared and revised his approximation of Jason's age downwards.

'Where is the Doctor now?'

'Oh, Dr Who took him to Galactic Prison.'

'Where's that?'

'But he tried to escape and got killed.'

'He what?'

Jason nodded as if it was all but trivia. 'A couple of his women, too. Bernice and . . . oh, what was her name?'

Chris could feel b.u.t.terflies in his stomach. He clutched Jason's sleeve. 'Roz?'

'What?'

'Roslyn Forrester? Was it her?'

'Don't think so.' Jason's face cleared. 'Oh, I remember.

Forrester. She was the one we couldn't find.' He shrugged. 'I don't know what happened to her.'

'We've got to find her!'

'I know. Before she does any more harm.'

'No. She's my partner. She was . . . taken in by the Doctor like I was.' The words didn't sound right.

'Ah well,' Jason said. 'You've reformed now, that's the main thing.' Chris opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again.

Jason turned to leave. 'I'll see you later. I'm sure we're going to have lots of fun adventures together.'

'I'm sure,' said Chris half-heartedly.

It took five minutes after Jason's departure for the impact of the Doctor's and Benny's deaths to hit him. He wanted to cry, 140 but he couldn't. He felt too numb; detached.

Chris wished again that Roz was here. Or, failing that, Kat'lanna. He needed someone to talk to.

Kat was a little put out when she saw that her colleagues had gathered in her secret hideaway, the hut. The feeling didn't last, though. The location seemed fitting - and certainly safer than her last idea. She wondered why she hadn't thought of it herself.

She was even happier when she saw who was responsible for bringing the rebels together here. She pushed her way through the crowded room and flung her arms around Thruskarr's neck.

The lizard man's uniform was still a mess, but physically he seemed to have recovered from the attack. It was several seconds before she remembered Christopher and felt a pang of guilt.

There were thirty-plus people - humans and lizards - packed into the building. Thruskarr and Rokk had taken the lead and Kat was glad to contribute without the additional burden of such responsibility.

'Enros's image has been badly shaken,' Rokk announced, using Kat's mattress to gain height. Even standing on bare floorboards, Thruskarr towered over him. 'Just a segment ago, a pink-skinned alien fell into his clutches.' A gasp rose from those who hadn't been aware of this.

'As you know,' explained Thruskarr, 'Enros has long claimed that he is worshipped on all other worlds. The alien could have provided proof that this was a lie.'

Rokk took up the story again. 'The only way he could save face was to denounce the alien as a servant of Evil. He tried to sacrifice him, but the alien's friends spirited him from right under our neighbourhood deity's nose. It must have shaken a few of the faithful!'

'Which makes this the best time to attack!' announced Thruskarr with gusto.

'More than that,' Rokk said, laying a steadying hand on the lizard's arm. His eyes gleamed. 'Myrg and I have spent some days undercover amongst the cultists. We know that Enros is 141 planning to take over!'

That was met with even more astonishment than the announcement of Christopher's existence. Even Kat had not known about this development. 'But he practically controls the planet already,' she said.

'And now,' said Rokk, 'he wants it all! He's got enough followers. They're about to sweep him into power!'

'Who cares?' someone spoke up. 'He can't make things worse. Let 'em kill the rulers!'

Rokk seized upon his words. 'That's just the point. We let the cultists and the Ruling Family start their war, then we move in and finish it.'

'What can we do?' asked Myrg.

'We invade the church. Enros won't be out fighting, he'll be cowering in the safest possible place. But he won't be as well protected as usual, he'll only have a skeleton guard. With a concentrated, well-planned attack, we can kill him!'

A murmur of uncertainty ran through the rebels. Rokk was annoyed; Kat guessed he had been antic.i.p.ating a supportive cheer. 'What's wrong with you all?'

'What . .' a young man asked, timorously. 'What if he's telling the truth? What if we die when we kill him?'

For a moment, Rokk didn't know how to respond. He looked from one upturned face to another and Kat did likewise, seeing nervousness and anguish, and outright fear in some of their expressions.

'You can't believe that,' said Thruskarr. 'You can't!'

'We've lost enough men to these fanatics already!' said Rokk bitterly. 'Between the Miracle and the lizard ma.s.sacre, too many weak-willed people have gone over to Enros.'

'But what,' came the dissenting voice again, 'if they are right?'

This time, the mumblings of discontent were louder.

'I've been looking for you!'

The cat abandoned its contemplation of its paws and tensed. It stared distrustfully at the intruder in its garden.

'Why didn't you come out and fight Ace with us? I thought 142 you wanted to join our adventure!'

The cat blinked. Jason glowered. 'You never come and play, no matter how you keep on promising. You've just been lying to me and I'm beginning to think we're not real chums any more!'

The cat yawned, stretched, then jumped of its shelf and padded along the paved path by the pondside.

Intellectually, Jason knew that his powers did not extend to the control of living organisms: giving the cat a costume and imagining that it spoke to him did not guarantee the creature's obedience. Emotionally, he brimmed with anger that this horrid beast was conspiring to ruin his story.

He leapt for the creature, which evaded his clumsy lunge and shot to safety beneath a bush on the garden's far side. He crouched and snarled at it, enraged by its steadfast green eyes, shining contemptuously through protective thorns. 'You're not the real Power Puss at all, are you? The Doctor has turned you into mincemeat, replacing you secretly with one of his minions.

Well, you've been found out. You're a spy, an evil traitor in my midst, and you must be punished!'

He dived for the bush, prepared to risk a few scratches in the laudable cause of destroying the enemy. The cat bolted, but collided with a plaster gnome which hadn't existed but a second earlier. It rolled and landed back on its feet with a disgruntled hiss, then screeched out loud as Jason gripped its collar and hauled it upwards. 'Gotcha!'

The cat dealt Jason a vicious scratch across the neck and he dropped it, howling in pain. It went for the door, but Jason was in no mood for pretend continuity now. So what if he used his powers overtly anyway?

A force-field blocked the doorway and giant hands hemmed the feline animal in until there was nowhere it could go. It was lifted and propelled towards Jason, who shielded his face with one hand and lashed out with the other. He punched the cat three times until it managed to sc.r.a.pe a sharp claw across his knuckles. He yelled again and waved an arm to send his foe across the garden with a visible surge of kinetic energy. It 143 landed in the pond and thrashed to stay afloat.

Clutching his neck, Jason staggered through the dissipating barrier and into the roundel-decorated corridor.

In his wake, Wolsey climbed, spitting and spluttering, from the hated water and made a token attempt to shake himself dry before collapsing, battered and exhausted.

Blood soaked into the concrete.

Dr Who stood in the doorway of Chris's room. 'I've had an idea. We'll take a trip somewhere and you can see how I operate.'

'I'd rather go back to Detrios,' said Chris, staring at the ceiling. Even as he spoke the words, he wasn't sure. A cold knot formed in his stomach at the thought of what he might find on that planet: Kat's corpse, for a start. She couldn't have survived. Was he better not knowing?

'But we've been there twice,' said Dr Who, 'I'm bored with it. Besides, I thought you wanted to find your friend.'

Chris sat up alertly. 'You know where Roz is?'

He shook his head. 'But I'm a.s.suming she discovered the Doctor's evil and he dealt with her somehow. If that is the case, she could well be dead.'

'She can't be. She's too strong!'

'Then there is one obvious place to look. Coincidentally, it's a planet I have wanted to clean up for some time, but which I was unable to help whilst the Doctor lived.'

Chris flinched at that reminder of his ex-companion's alleged fate. No matter what the Doctor had done, he couldn't - no, wouldn't - believe it.

'Where is this planet?' he asked, to divert his mind.

'You saw it briefly before,' said Dr Who. 'It's a world where hatred rules. Different races despise each other, corruption is rife and the rulers care nothing for their subjects, only for the acc.u.mulation of wealth.'

'It sounds like Detrios,' commented Chris.

'And what did you do on that planet?' asked Dr Who searchingly.

144.

Chris thought about that and remembered their earlier conversation. 'I suppose I did what you said before. The rulers were in the wrong so I joined a rebel group who wanted to bring the system down.'

His visitor was beaming. 'That's excellent!' He stepped out into the corridor and reached to close the door behind him.

'Then I'm sure you will agree,' he said as he left, 'that a similar course of action will be appropriate on the planet Earth.'

145.

16.

Return of the Evil Doctor

For a long time, there was only the dark.

Chris had tried to catch an hour's sleep, but had found that unusually difficult. Kat'lanna's face had swum through his dreams, the worry of Roz's disappearance had nagged him and the Doctor's betrayal - and death? had churned his guts alongside the uncertainty of his current alliance.

He returned to the console room, defeated but determined to put a brave face on his tiredness and disorientation. 'I've found one of our old crew,' he announced brightly. His travelling partners whirled to face him. 'Our cat, I mean. Wolsey. He was in the gardens.'

'When?' asked Jason, too keenly.

'About an hour ago,' said Chris, puzzled by the intense interest. pa.s.sed through on the way to my room. I don't know where he is now.'

'We're landing soon,' said Jason. Chris thought the change of subject a little obvious, although he couldn't guess the reason.